Styrofoam pellets or peanuts are commonly used within the wholesale and retail industries as bulk packaging material. The peanuts are used to position a product away from the interior sides of a container and fill the empty space located therebetween. The peanuts are intended to protect the packaged product against the impact of a blow or other mistreatment.
Dispensing styrofoam peanuts does not require a great degree of sophistication. The peanuts are simply gravity fed from large retainer bins into the empty spaces within a packaging container.
Use of styrofoam peanuts, however, has many drawbacks. For example, if styrofoam peanuts are used to protect a heavy object placed within a container, and such package is jostled and shaken, the object usually gravitates toward the bottom of the container and the peanuts float upward. Eventually the object comes to rest against the base or side of the container and damage to the object may occur. The light weight of styrofoam peanuts also allows them to be easily blown by the wind and scattered.
Of particular concern, styrofoam peanuts are extremely difficult to dispose of and destroy after use. In fact, because of the extensive use of this nonbiodegradable product, which emits toxic gases if burned, styrofoam peanuts present a major threat to the environment and are being banned from an increasing number of communities.
Styrofoam peanuts are also dangerous to children and to wildlife who often mistake them as food and consequently ingest them. Styrofoam peanuts are not digestible and cause a major source of tracheal blockage in children.
Other packaging filler materials, such as shredded paper, have also been used. Shredded paper, however, usually lays flat within the container and a very large amount of paper is required to provide the bulk needed to fill the voids and to protect the contained object. To provide such a large amount of shredded paper is often cost prohibitive and, following its use, such voluminous amounts of paper must be disposed. In addition, the shock absorbency of flat shredded paper is minimal.
The following patents describe various paper shredding machines: Lee (U.S. Pat. No. 2,621,567; issued Dec. 16, 1952); Lee (U.S. Pat. No. 2,686,466; issued Aug. 17, 1954); Gil (U.S. Pat. No. 3,754,498; issued Aug. 28, 1973); and Whitehead et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,201,128; issued May 6, 1980). Lee ('567) teaches that during the passage of the paper through the shredding machine, the strips are kinked at spaced-apart points along their lengths.
The inventor believes the known prior art taken alone or in combination neither anticipate nor render obvious the present invention. These citations do not constitute an admission that such disclosures are relevant or material to the present claims. Rather, these citations relate only to the general field of the disclosure and are cited as constituting the closest art of which the inventor is aware.